Over Current Protection Using Fuse

Fuse is the most common and widely used over current

protective device in electrical circuits. Though ‘fuseless’
concept had been catching on for quite some time, still
quite a lot of low-voltage distribution circuits are
protected with fuses.

Two types of fuses are mostly used:

1. Rewireable type Rewireable type Cartridge type

2. Cartridge type

HRC fuse or high rupturing capacity fuse– In that type

of fuse, the fuse wire or element can carry short circuit
heavy current for a known time period. During this time if
the fault gets removed, then it does not blow off.
Otherwise, it blows off or melts.

The enclosure of HRC fuse is either of glass or some

other chemical compound. This enclosure is sufficiently
airtight to avoid the effect of the atmosphere on the fuse
materials HRC fuse
 Parameters Related to Fuse
 Minimum Fusing Current:
It is minimum value of current due to which fuse melts.

 Current Rating of Fuse:

It is maximum value of current due to which fuse does not get melt.

 Fusing Factor:
This is the ratio of minimum fusing current and current rating of fuse. The
value of fusing factor is always more than 1.

 Prospective Current in Fuse:

Before melting, the fuse element has to carry the short circuit current
through it. The prospective current is defined as the value of current which
would flow through the fuse immediately after a short circuit occurs in the
network.
 Melting Time of Fuse or Pre-arcing Time of Fuse:
This is the time taken by a fuse wire to get broken by melting. It gets counted from the instant;
the overcurrent starts flowing through the fuse, to the instant when fuse wire gets just broken by
melting.

 Arcing Time of Fuse:

After breaking of fuse wire there will be an arcing between both melted tips of the wire which will
be extinguished at the current zero. The time accounted from the instant of arc initiated to the
instant of the arc gets extinguished is known as arcing time of fuse.

 Operating Time of Fuse:

Whenever over current starts to flow through a fuse wire, it takes time to be melted and
disconnected, and just after that the arcing stars between the melted tips of the fuse wire, which
finally gets extinguished. The operating time of fuse is the time gap between the instant when
the over current starts to flow through the fuse and the instant when the arc in fuse finally gets
extinguished. That means operating time of fuse = melting time + arcing time.
 Operating Characteristics of Fuse

 All fuses irrespective of the type have

inverse characteristic as shown in graph
that follows.
 Inverse means that they can withstand
their nominal current rating almost
indefinitely but as the currents increases
their withstanding time starts decreasing
making them ‘blow’.
 The blowing time decreases as the
flowing currents increase.
 Fuse Selection Philosophy
 Fuse selection depends on a number of factors:
• Maximum fault kVA of circuit to be protected
• Voltage of circuit.

The above factors help to calculate the prospective current of circuit to be protected.

The full prospective current is usually never reached due to rapid operation of the fuse and hence the
following factors need to be considered.

1. Full load current of circuit: Short-circuit tests show that the cut-off current increases as the rating
increases. Hence if a higher-rated fuse is used it may take longer time to blow under short circuits
which may affect the system depending upon the value and duration. Hence, greater benefit is
derived from use of correct or nearest rating cartridge fuses compared to the circuit rating.

2. Degree of overcurrent protection required: It is necessary to consider slightly higher rating for the
fuses compared to maximum normal current expected in a system. This factor is called the fusing
factor and can be anywhere between 1.25 and 1.6 times the normal rating.
 Fuse Selection Philosophy
Selection of fuse for transformer:
3. Level of overcurrent required to be
carried for a short time without blowing
or deteriorating e.g. motor starting
currents. This point is important for
motor circuits. Fuses must be able to
carry starting surge without blowing or
deteriorating.

4. Whether fuses are required to operate

or grade in conjunction with other
protective apparatus. This factor is
necessary to ensure that only faulty
circuits are isolated during fault
conditions without disturbing the healthy
circuits.